Lansallos to Downderry: South West Coast Path Day 33 Guide

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Being inland with a sheltered spot to pitch makes such a difference; despite a lot of wind overnight, I slept remarkably well. There’d been a bit of rain as well, and I got more while waiting for my coffee to brew, but much like yesterday it quickly cleared away.

Walking the mile down to rejoin the trail on fresh legs this morning was a lot easier than walking up on tired legs yesterday, and I was soon back on the path at Lansallos Beach. It was just as deserted as it had been the day before; this is a pretty rugged bit of coastline, and hard enough that it puts many day walkers off.

The seven miles between Polruan and Polperro is known as the “roller coaster” thanks to its endless ups and downs. Today’s half of the amusement ride felt slightly harder than yesterday’s, but even if I’d walked it all in one go, I don’t think it would have been as tough as some of the early sections of the Coast Path. Or maybe I’m just getting fitter, who knows?

The weather couldn’t make up its mind this morning, with plenty of blue sky and warm sunshine interspersed with sudden heavy showers that saw me scrambling for my jacket. Between the downpours and the puffing and panting, the views were spectacular in both directions. I guess that’s the benefit of so much climbing!

The trail was generally nice and soft, perhaps a little too soft at times thanks to the rain, but I’ll take slightly muddy paths over hard rocky ones any day. After two particularly steep climbs in a row, the path dropped gently at first and then not gently at all at Neadland Point, before climbing up again at Sidwell Pool.

This is the end of the roller coaster (although definitely not the end of today’s climbing), and from here a few different paths lead to Polperro: stick to the one closest to the cliffs to stay on the Coast Path.

Polperro is an impossibly-lovely Cornish fishing village that always shows up on postcards and tourist brochures, but you wouldn’t know that until you’re literally in it. It’s tucked away in the curve of a natural harbour, and you can’t see it at all until you turn the corner of the headland above.

After taking photos all the way down the steep descent, I stopped at The Wheelhouse, the first open place to eat that I saw. It was still a little early for most of the restaurants and pubs, but that turned out to be a win: unlike the tourist-focused eateries that dominate the rest of Polperro, this felt like a more local spot, with prices to match.

It was quite busy already, so the Skippers Breakfast took a while to come out, but I was in no hurry. It was worth the wait and absolutely huge: even with my insatiable hiker hunger these days, it was a struggle to finish it all.

Waddling back outside, I walked around the harbour, behind several old stone buildings, then steeply up and out the other side of the village. The narrow lanes were crowded with visitors even in mid September, so I can only imagine what it would have been like a month earlier!

Pausing only to take another half-million photos from the other side of the cove, I turned to continue east, past the turnoff to a small lighthouse beacon and onwards to a small headland. Passing a stone cross in memory of local soldiers who died in WW2, the rocky path then turned north and descended towards pretty Talland Bay.

Still digesting breakfast, I definitely didn’t need anything from the cafes there, so continued around the low cliffs and onto an unusually flat section of trail out towards Portnadler Bay. Flat, that is, except an unexpected set of stairs just before the headland that looked and felt like it climbed into the heavens.

Portnadler Bay itself looked really quite pretty, at least when it wasn’t raining (normal service had resumed there), and after one more steep climb, I finished my stroll along the cliffs and dropped down to the long, rocky expanse of Hannafore Beach.

This beach is basically on the outskirts of Looe, but feels distinct from it and looked like a lovely spot. I hadn’t planned to stop here, but Island View Cafe beckoned me in with its tables in the sunshine, so I crossed the road for a closer look.

That turned out to be a great decision, since this was almost certainly the most allergy-friendly place I found on the entire Coast Path. I’m lactose intolerant, and yet I could eat pretty much everything on the menu, including all of the cakes and pastries that are usually firmly off-limits.

I celebrated that discovery with a large slice of carrot cake. It was a delight. Less delightful were the dark clouds that rolled in as I was finishing it, so I moved inside and ordered a second Coke while I waited for the rain to stop. I mean, why not?

The deluge briefly subsided, giving me enough time to make my way along the rest of the beach and into Looe. The town is split in two by its river, so I strolled along the west bank of the estuary for a few minutes until the rain came back, at which point I joined several other people under a bus shelter.

We all stared glumly out at the sky, muttering banalities to each other until it was time to move on again: five minutes later, I was bathed in bright sunshine. Even by Cornish standards, today’s weather was really having an identity crisis.

Crossing over the bridge to the eastern bank, I found most of the restaurants, pubs, and retail shops. Looe was an attractive, bustling little town, and I’d have liked to spend longer here; it would have been a good place to spend the night, and if there’d been a campsite nearby, I probably would have.

Since there wasn’t, I followed the sparse waymarkers along the river and up Castle Street until I found myself looking down on the town beach. I couldn’t believe how appealing it was, given how much rain had fallen 15 minutes earlier, but people were already back out swimming in the shallows.

From here the path undulated its way past Plaidy Beach, another scenic little stretch of sand, before dropping back down to sea level in the small settlement of Millendreath. It felt like most of today’s climbing should be done by now, but I couldn’t have been more wrong: the path started steeply up the lane on the other side of the bay, and didn’t stop rising for another mile and a half!

Along the way there were another couple of heavy downpours, and I discovered that even large trees didn’t provide anywhere near enough shelter when the weather was like this. Still, when it wasn’t absolutely torrential, stomping through the puddles and mud was quite fun: I really don’t mind walking in the rain, as long as I’m not doing it all day.

After passing (of all things) a monkey sanctuary, I turned off the country lane I’d been following for a while and squelched through a field back towards the coast. Descending sharply, the path and that country lane met up again a mile later, which I wasn’t sad about: things had been getting very slippery underfoot.

The path stayed on the road as it dropped down into Seaton, where, continuing the theme of the day, the rain started up again as I passed the pub. That was enough to send me scurrying inside for a pint and an early dinner.

Given it hadn’t even hit 5 p.m., there wasn’t a great deal of pressure on the kitchen at that point. My ham, eggs, and chips arrived quickly, and disappeared even faster. How I eat this much while hiking, I will never know.

My guidebook suggested that while the official path from Seaton follows the road into Downderry, outside high tide it was preferable to walk along the sea wall instead.

Since I wasn’t sure about getting back up to the road in time to branch off to my campsite, I ignored that advice, but probably shouldn’t have. The road was busy and unpleasant with no footpath, and looking at the map now, I definitely could have taken the beach route.

Having narrowly avoided being wiped out by fast-moving traffic through Downderry, I took a sharp left up Trewall Hill. This lane got narrower and steeper the further I walked along it, and the half-mile to Trewall Farm Campsite felt decidedly further than it was.

First impressions weren’t wonderful when I walked in, with just a board with a phone number to call and a completely empty field that seemed to be catching all of the wind. I ended up really liking this place in the end, though: when I called the owner, he directed me to a small, sheltered field out the back that he saves for walkers, and told me he’d come round later to collect payment.

For the first time on this walk I was the only person staying in the campsite that night, with just sheep in the nearby paddock for company. Luckily I’m from New Zealand, so felt right at home in that situation.

When the owner (Paul) did show up later that evening, we had a great chat about walking, life, and most pressingly, the weather. Strong winds and storms were forecast in a couple of days, and I really wasn’t liking the look of them.

I fell asleep that night trying to come up with a plan for how to deal with 60+ mph winds in a tent that was almost certainly not designed for 60+ mph winds.

Planning

Started at: Highertown Farm Campsite (0.9 miles/1.5km off-trail)

Finished at: Trewall Farm Campsite (0.5 miles/0.8km off-trail)

This ended up being a great place to stay, despite the uphill walk to get there.

As I say, I ended up being the only person in the entire site that night, so there was definitely no pressure on the modern, clean showers and toilets. Even better, there were no annoying tokens, coins, or repeated button-pushing required to get hot water; definitely a rarity!

Paul, the owner, saves the most sheltered field specifically for campers with small tents, which I was very glad of. The main field overlooks the ocean, which is great and all if you’re in a van, but far from ideal if you’re in a tent and the wind is blowing. The wind is, in fact, often blowing.

I chose a spot that was flat and almost inside the tall hedge, trying to get as much shelter as possible. It worked: I ended up having a great night’s sleep despite the stiff breeze. There was a picnic table alongside, which I appreciated the next morning. It’s nice to be able to lay things out on a dry surface while packing up, rather than putting them on the wet ground.

The closest place for food or drink is back down the hill in Downderry: unless you particularly fancy the mile round trip, you may want to have dinner or pick up supplies before you arrive. The nearest pub is Inn on the Shore, just off the path towards the ocean.

I paid a very reasonable £10 to stay there (cash or card).

Transport and Parking

Public transport on this section isn’t great, but it does exist. The number 481 or 482 bus picks you beside the church in Lansallos and then heads cross-country to Looe.

It stops in Crumplehorn along the way, which is within easy walking distance of Polperro. After stopping once in Looe, it continues on to Hannafore Beach before looping back again to Looe Bridge. It runs Monday through Friday excluding bank holidays, roughly every 2-3 hours.

To continue on from Looe, take the number 10 bus for about 25 minutes, getting off beside the Copley Arms on the A387 in Hessenford. Cross over to Hessenford Road and take the number 75 south back towards the coast: it calls in at both Seaton and Downderry.

The number 10 service runs every day, roughly once every two hours. The 75 operates Monday through Saturday excluding bank holidays, at sporadic times: check the timetable linked above for details, but expect somewhere around three services in the morning and three in the afternoon.

If you’re starting or finishing your time on the Coast Path today, Looe has a small train station on Station Road beside the river. It’s a branch line that connects to Liskeard, and from there onwards to Plymouth, Exeter, and London Paddington to the east, and Penzance to the west.

You can also get from Looe to Plymouth on the number 10 bus I mentioned earlier: just stay on it the whole way instead of changing in Hessenford.

For those thinking about leaving a car somewhere as part of a car shuffle or to combine with public transport, there are several choices. There’s a National Trust carpark in Lansallos village, and an extremely expensive parking lot behind Polperro that I really wouldn’t suggest using: the one in Talland Bay is closer to the trail and under half the price for long-stay parking.

There’s free on-street parking on Marine Drive beside the path at Hannafore Beach, and several parking lots in Looe on both sides of the river. Prices vary quite a bit: if you don’t mind walking a bit further, the cheapest for longer stays is at Kilminorth Woods beside the West Looe River, northwest of the bridge.

There’s another parking lot at Millendreath Beach, and Seaton has a surprising number of options for such a small place: they’re all operated by the council, and pricing is the same at each of them. There’s also a small council-run car park at Broads Yard in Downderry, with quite cheap all-day parking.

Waymarking and Navigation

I didn’t find navigation particularly difficult today, even though there were several spots where the path has obviously been diverted due to erosion. They were all well marked, even if some older maps still show the original route.

The waymarking was a bit sparse in Looe, but it’s not hard to find your way. Just stick to the path beside the river as you walk up the west bank, over the bridge, and back down the east bank. Keep an eye out for Castle St on your left and walk up it: once you get to the end, you’re back on the Coast Path.

I used AllTrails as my main navigation app for the entire South West Coast Path, and it worked well throughout. The first section from Lansallos to Looe is covered on this map, while Looe to Downderry is included here.

The app is free to use, although I pay a couple of pounds a month for a subscription so I can download maps to my phone in advance.

Phone Service

Phone service was reasonably good today with O2, including at the campsites at either end. It was a bit hit and miss in the morning on the way to Polperro, including in the village itself, but mostly improved as I got closer to Looe. It became sporadic again afterwards in the coves and valleys, but was generally fine up on the cliffs.

As a backup, I’d also paid a few pounds for a data eSIM from Instabridge that let me swap between all three UK networks, EE, O2, and Vodafone/Three. It worked really well as a fallback option all along the Coast Path: if I didn’t have service with my usual provider, I’d just switch to another. As long as there were any mobile phone towers in range, I’d have service.

Facilities

The one cafe in Lansallos wasn’t open by the time I left in the morning, and there was nothing in the way of facilities on the fairly rugged section between there and Polperro.

There are many places to eat and drink there, of course, although you may need to check opening times. While The Wheelhouse was open and provided a good, massive breakfast when I showed up at 10:30 a.m., several others didn’t start serving food until 11 or 12.

Talland Bay has both a cafe and a pub beside the beach, although they only operate April through October. The Talland Bay Hotel, a five minute walk up the hill, is open all year.

As I mentioned, I was really impressed with Island View Cafe at Hannafore Beach; it’s worth stopping at for sure. Beyond that, there are a couple of seafood restaurants beside the trail on the way into Looe, and many other options once you get there. You’ll find more choice in East Looe than West Looe, but won’t struggle to get fed in either.

The path goes straight past a beach shack in Millendreath, while Seaton has the Beach House restaurant, along with the Smugglers Inn where I had an early dinner. Finally, there’s the Inn on the Shore pub in Downderry, along with Bewshea’s By the Beach, a restaurant that looked surprisingly busy as I passed.

Accommodation

There are a reasonable number of campsites to choose between today, although some of them are a lot further from the trail than others.

First up after leaving Lansallos is Great Kellow Farm, 1.2 miles inland of Polperro. They have a special rate for walkers, but it’s quite a hike to get there.

There are several campsites in the vicinity of Looe, but most are likewise quite a long way off the trail. The two exceptions are Bay View Farm, just past Millendreath and only a few yards from the path, and Penhale Camping on the way to Seaton: the latter was closed last season due to illness.

After that you’re in Downderry, and staying at the excellent Trewall Farm where I spent the night.

If you’re not camping, accommodation on much of this section can be annoying thanks to minimum two or three night stays. That largely rules out both Polperro and Talland Bay, but thankfully Looe has plenty of options, and at much more reasonable prices as well.

Start with this great little hotel overlooking Hannafore Beach, this guesthouse right beside the bridge in West Looe, or this B&B close to the train station in East Looe.

After Looe, there’s really not much until you get to Downderry, where accommodation covers the full spectrum of size and pricing. On the more affordable end, take a look at this guesthouse or a room at Inn on the Shore.